Page 225 - New English Book L
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As to the other meaning of “intercessor or advocate”
which is given in the ecclesiastical word “Paraclete,” I
again insist that “Paracalon” and not “Paraclytos” can
convey in itself a similar sense. The proper Greek term
for “advocate” in Sunegorus and for “intercessor” or
“mediator” meditéa.
In my next article, I shall give the true Greek form of
which Paraklytos is a corruption. En passant, I wish to
correct an error into which the French savant Ernest Renan
has also fallen. If I recollect well, Monsieur Renan, in his
famous The Life ofChrist, interprets the “Paraclete” of St.
John (pbuh) (xiv. 16, 26; xv. 7; I John ii. 1) as an “advocate.”
He cites the Syro-Chaldean form “Peraklit” as opposed
to “Ktighra” “the accuser” from Kategorus. The Syrian
name for mediator or intercessor is “mis’aaya,” but in
law courts, the “Snighra” (from the Greek Sunegorus)
is used for anadvocate. Many Syrians unfamiliar with
the Greek language consider the “Paraqlita” to be really
the Aramaic or the Syriac form of the “Paraclete” in the
Pshittha Version and to be composed of “Paraq,” “to save
from, to deliver from,” and “Iita” “the accursed.” The
idea that Christ is the “Saviour from the curse of
the law,” and therefore he is himself too “Paraqlita”
(1 John ii. 1), may have led some to think that the Greek
word is originally an Aramaic word, just as the Greek
sentence “Maran atha” in Aramaic is “Maran Athi,” i.e.
“our Lord is coming” (1 John xvi. 22), which seems to be
an expression among the believers regarding the coming
of the Last Great Prophet. This ‘Maran Athi,” as well
as, especially, the baptismal formula, contains points too
important to be neglected. They both deserve a special
study and a valuable exposition. They both embody
in themselves marks and indications otherwise than
favourable to Christianity.